Peter: A Silent Betrayal
by pottermommy1118
Summary: An End of An Era Story. Story 1/3 Follows the legacy storyline. The moments after Wormtail's betrayal.


**_This one was really really hard to write._**

**_I hope you like it or at least don't hate it._**

**_This will likely be the most controversial of any of my stories._**

**_Well here we go._**

**_And again I got this idea from a reader/reviewer_**

**_HOHWARTSLIVY_**

**_I have read all of her stories and asked her permission to expound on one of her ideas._**

**_She is a good writer, check her out._**

**_This has been rewritten slightly._**

**_I am not JKR._**

Peter: A Silent Betrayal

The sky was dark, pitch black, the cloud cover had made the Halloween sky into an inky canvas that year. Pete, scratch that, Peter was sitting in a heap, clutching his forearm crying. He was no longer Pete, or wormtail, only his friends called him that, he no longer had any friends, not now. A few moments ago his arm had seared like it had been gripped in fire, the skull there shining a bright blood red, rather than the normal black. He had tried to aparate to the dark lord as usual but it wouldn't work, he never moved from his place of hiding at Malfoy manor.

He sat quivering in a corner knowing that he had caused this, it had been his actions that caused this. James, Lily and the baby were dead by now. Their bodies going cold. His mind fell back to last night, October 30th, the night he had sealed their fate. He had tried to hold back but he was no match for The Dark Lord. Shit, who was he kidding, He was no match for Sirius, James and Remus, how could he stand up to the Dark Lord. At the mere thought of James he broke into sobs again and the memories plagued his mind.

-o-o-o-o-o-o

They had been summoned to the smallest of Lucius' offices tonight, the walls were covered in a thick green fabric. It screamed Slytherin, after all these years serving alongside of the man the fact that he had been the Slytherin boy that had caused him and the other marauders so much torment in school still irritated him. The colors grated on his Gryffindor sense. But right now he had to find a way out of this, there had to be a way to stop this from happening, knowing deep within that there was not. He looked up when the huge wooden door opened and the Dark Lord walked in. He glanced to his right where sat Rodolphus Lestrange, then to his left where only one other sat. Malfoy followed the black robed, red eyed evil into the room and sat quickly at his immediate right, Bellatrix Lestrange had followed and sat at the Dark Lord's immediate left, their proffered places of rank secure.

His blood ran cold when the man drummed his fingers together and looked at Peter as if he was x-raying him, seeing his very soul, which in all likelihood, he was.

"Ah, wormtail? Isn't that what our three order menaces call you? I have been notified that three days ago, you were made secret keeper for something I dearly want. Why have you waited so long to tell me?"

Peter shifted in his seat, fear, sorrow and regret rooting him to the spot. "I did not intend to keep you waiting master. At the time we hadn't discussed me becoming secret keeper and I was caught off guard at the act of trust I was shown. I have been ordered to watch Sirius Black and to get into his head, it did not occur to me to bring you the information that had not been requested."

He knew it was coming, he knew the pain would be immense, but he had to fight, to resist. After all it couldn't go on forever and Voldemort would not kill him, this secret lived within him alone, he was valuable, he would be tormented to a point but not killed and not left in an insane heap. He could do this, he had thought about it, he would hold his ground. This was Lily and James, one of his best friends, their son called him Uncle Pete. He would protect them, they were worth the pain. As Sirius had reminded him a few weeks ago before an order mission, he was supposed to be a Gryffindor.

The pain hit as soon as the high voice uttered the words. As if h was being lit on fire from within. The pain lasted only moments before it was gone as soon as it started and he was being lifted to his feet.

"You will tell me the location of the Potters and you will tell me now." The voice keened, from within inches of his face.

Peter was proud of his endurance that night, it was around 10 in the morning on Halloween when Malfoy pulled him to standing again. Peter noticed how his face was paler than usual. He felt the worry in his heart grow, just as the pit in his stomach did, in the instant before he was lifted into the air and thrown into a chair magically and his master began to speak.

"Pettigrew it occurs to me that you are under a delusion. I will not hesitate to kill you, you are merely the easy way to James and Lily Potter and their son. When you are dead for not telling me, I will go to another that you have given the secret to, I know you gave it to Sirius Black, and it was written out by you to be given by Sirius to Dumbledore, and the Longbottom's. I will simply get it out of someone else. I am certain, that to save their own son that Alice and Frank will give up the other child. Not that it will save him at all. Now you will tell me or I will kill you. Your last chance wormtail, speak to your master."

The words of death washed over him, knowing that he could not hold out and live, his courage failed him, they would understand surely, they would understand, they would do the same, his thoughts lied to him as he choked out the sacred place.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The heavy door slammed open as Malfoy flew through.

"What have you done? How did you do this! They have banished the Dark Lord! What have you done!"

"You are a blood traitor!"

"You will die marauder, I have waited years for this."

As more death eaters flowed into the small room, screaming of betrayal and death the fear for his life returned and Peter did the only thing he could think of. He threw his wand to the floor and transformed into his animagus and bolted through the gap in the door.

Staying in his form he flitted to the cottage, staring in horror at the scene in front of him. There was a crowd of aurors and Mediwitches and wizards, James and Lily still lay in front of the house side by side, Harry was nowhere in sight. The house had exploded exactly where the nursery stood. They were gone, his friends, his family, they were gone and there was no one to blame but himself.

He scurried off into the forests intending to take out his money and run, after all, Sirius would tell, he had to escape, the aurors, the death eaters who believed him to be a traitor, his friends, and the pain, the burning pain that was far worse than the cruciatus had ever been. The pain of death, the pain of being alone, of being hunted. The pain caused by his betrayal.


End file.
